Pilot FTZs advancing reform, opening-up

Tourists buy goods at a duty-free shop in Sanya, Hainan province, on Oct. 4. [Photo/China News Service]

China's FTZs (2013-18) – five years of milestones 

· Sept. 29, 2013: China establishes its first pilot FTZ in Shanghai, a global financial hub.

· Sept. 30, 2013: China first pilots a "negative list" in the Shanghai FTZ with 190 items on it, allowing foreign investment in all fields apart from those named.

· Nov. 22, 2013: The Shanghai International Energy Exchange is unveiled in the Shanghai FTZ, a key step toward the launch of China's own crude oil futures.

· March 4, 2015: The Shanghai Petroleum and Natural Gas Exchange, a jointly funded platform to prompt oil and gas reform and enhance China's pricing power, is registered within the Shanghai FTZ.

· April 21, 2015: China expands the pilot FTZ practice to three other coastal provincial-level regions: Tianjin, Guangdong and Fujian.

· April 27, 2015: The Shanghai FTZ is enlarged to cover the city's commercial and financial center Lujiazui, and Jinqiao and Zhangjiang districts.

· April 1, 2017: New pilot FTZs are launched in Liaoning, Zhejiang, Henan, Hubei, Sichuan and Shaanxi provinces as well as the Chongqing municipality.

· March 26, 2018: China launches the trading of yuan-denominated crude oil futures on the Shanghai International Energy Exchange in the Shanghai FTZ, the first futures variety on the Chinese mainland open to overseas investment.

· June 30, 2018: China unveils a new negative list for foreign investment in the pilot FTZs, with the number of items cut to 45.

· Oct. 10, 2018: The Shanghai FTZ issues the country's first negative list in the service trade field.

· Oct. 16, 2018: China rolls out a plan for establishing Hainan as a pilot FTZ, the 12th and largest among its peers.

· Oct. 24, 2018: In an instruction on the development of pilot FTZs, President Xi Jinping calls for building the country's pilot FTZs toward new heights of reform and opening-up in the new era.

· Nov. 5, 2018: In a keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the first China International Import Expo in Shanghai, President Xi Jinping reveals the Shanghai FTZ is to expand, announcing: "(We) will encourage and support bold and creative steps by Shanghai to advance investment and trade liberalization and facilitation so that more of its successful practices may be replicated in other parts of China."